It’s easy. While a lot of good things happened during Obama’s time, a lot of it was set into motion many years before Obama was even running. So how can we counter Obama’s claims to be such a great foreign policy leader?

On Osama

Osama Bin Laden was captured and killed by the United States after many years of diligent work. Other than giving the order to actually go after him, Obama had very little to do with finding him. Any president would have done the same. There is no need to worry much about this claim, but Obama may use it during debates and television advertisements. We have to be ready to respond.

On Kadaffi

The Arab Spring was bound to happen. After nearly half a decade of gruesome and ruthless oppression, any minor spark was going to cause this ticking time bomb to explode. Unemployment rates of 30-40%, a burgeoning youth population with no jobs that is highly educated and technologically savvy, and a brutally repressive regime was a perfect recipe for a revolution. Obama acted quickly to support the revolutionaries, but he only supported them once the outcome was inevitable. He did not lead the way. He followed from behind. People don’t look to the US as a follower nation. We are supposed to lead. And lead headfirst. Not from behind. It’s almost asinine the way Obama handled the Mubarak and Kadaffi revolutions. Waiting till the very last minute to finally jump in and say we helped. But wait, it gets worse.

Why Libya and Not Syria?

The Republican nominee can go after Obama for not supporting the revolutionaries in Syria like he did Libya. The Obama administration begrudgingly followed from behind when European nations lead the attack and enforced a no fly zone. Obama and the European nations can be criticized because the no fly zone in Libya was about the oil. Nothing else. Libya has one of the largest and purest crude oil supplies in the world, and the Italians and French are heavy consumers of Libyan oil. We can go after Obama on that alone. And he can’t deny it.

Kadaffi threatened to massacre his people, while Syria’s Assad is actually massacring them. Where is Obama now? Where is he on preemptively preventing massacres? Total silence. This contradictory foreign policy is a major weakness. He jumps on the bandwagon when the outcome is inevitable, but is afraid to take the lead. World leaders are supposed to lead, not wait for others to lead. His foreign policy has been castrated by his unwillingness to lead and act unilaterally. If President George W. Bush was still in office, Assad would have been long gone.

Compromised On Syria

While many senators including McCain, Lieberman, and Graham have been calling for an intervention in Syria, Obama has been criticizing them for it. He keeps complaining that “some people are beating the war drums”. Well, that’s not exactly true. No one is asking for a ground war. But the senators are asking for a no fly zone, similar to Libya. But Obama has no explanation as to why he doesn’t support a no fly zone for Syria. He just keeps talking and talking. He has called for Assad to step down at least 10 different times, and Assad hasn’t left. Obama needs to be ready to enforce what the United States says. You can’t call for Assad to step down, and when he doesn’t, we just sit around and watch him massacre his own people. The United States leadership role in the world has been compromised and weakened by Obama’s lack of willingness to enforce his own words. He calls for Assad to step down countless times, but is afraid to back those words up?

Obama supports Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas

The Obama administration is doing everything in its power to keep Syria’s Assad in power. They have even sent Hilary Clinton to Saudi to tell them not to send aid or arms to the Free Syrian Army. How sick is that? Syria supports terrorist organizations and nations. The headquarters for Hamas is in Assad’s capital, Damascus. Iran and Hezbollah consider Assad a loyal friend, and Iran uses Syria to transport weapons to Hezbollah to be used on Israeli civilians. Obama wants Assad to stay in power, thereby strengthening Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas. If this isn’t the definition of insanity and a completely backward foreign policy, then we are all insane. How the Obama campaign and administration can continue to defend Assad and allow him to stay in power is unbelievable. It is one of the worst geopolitical strategies humanity has ever conceived.

Here we are in 2012, with a golden opportunity to put a major dagger in the heart of Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas, and Obama flinches? And looks the other way? It’s very sad.

Obama supports human rights abuses including the rape, torture, and killing of women and children

The Syrian regime is torturing children. Yes, children. Snipers are shooting 2 year olds in the streets. Women are being raped with their husbands being forced to watch. Then the man gets sodomized with an AK47 butt or other object (sometimes a few penises). They rape little boys in front of their parents. They rape little girls in front of their parents. This is a very sick society. Much worse than what happened in Bosnia and Sarajevo in the early 1990s. Till this day, Bill Clinton’s only regret was not acting soon enough and with as much force in Bosnia. A similarly harrowing experience as was happening there is happening now in Syria. How the civilized world can sit around and watch this is inexplicable, and Obama needs to act. The rest of the world wants to act, but the United States is telling them not to. Despicable and sad that we are put in the position of supporting a ruthless dictator. Syria has no oil either, otherwise, the world may have reacted anyways. We can go after Obama on this unbelievably cowardly stance.

Obama’s Foreign Policy Weaknesses

While on the outside Obama may look like a foreign policy genius, he actually isn’t. He is lucky to be in the right place at the right time. He won the foreign policy lottery with the Osama Bin Laden ordeal, and is trying to claim that he is the best foreign policy president we have ever had. This is obviously untrue for many of the aforementioned reasons. The inconsistent policy on dictators, repression, oppression, human rights, and supporting terrorist nations and organizations is more than enough to destroy Obama on the foreign policy debate.